Found an error?
Report now
City Councilwoman Ursula Koch speaks on June 16, 1988, on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich at a “bank protest” commemorating the 1976 uprising in Soweto against the apartheid regime in South Africa, which was crushed by force. Anti-apartheid activists called for a boycott of the banks. (KEYSTONE/Patrice Cuennet)
Keystone
On June 16, 1988, activists took over Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse. They were protesting the ties between Swiss banks and the South African apartheid regime. Prominent among them was Zurich City Councilor Ursula Koch (SP).
With the so-called “bank picket,” anti-apartheid activists commemorated the crushed Soweto Uprising of 1976. Hundreds of thousands had taken part in the protests in South Africa, and hundreds died as a result of police violence.
Protests and commemorations took place worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s. In Zurich, activists called for a boycott of the major banks doing business with the apartheid regime in South Africa. The banks were also to be forced to refrain from issuing bonds or granting loans to South Africa.
The bank picket resembled a vigil, some of which were held weekly. The SDA reported at the time that around 500 people participated in the event shown in the photo. There were no incidents.
“In leaflets and speeches, the stance of official Switzerland and the major banks on South Africa policy was described as a moral scandal, and calls were made to boycott the major banks and close accounts. City Councilor Koch was greeted with loud applause as she recounted her encounter with the South African resistance fighter Dulce September, who had since been murdered,” the report stated.
For the anti-apartheid movement, the bank protest had repercussions: mere participation was enough to be monitored by the state and end up in a file, as the 1989 file scandal revealed.
It would still be some time before the racist regime in South Africa stepped down. In 1990, freedom fighter Nelson Mandela was released from prison; in 1994, his party won the first free elections.
Ursula Koch remained a Zurich city councilor until 1998. One statement by the head of the building department stands out in particular: “The city is built.” Though the following sentence—“It doesn’t need to be rebuilt, but rather renovated”—is often left out.
Koch became known throughout Switzerland as president of the Swiss Social Democratic Party (SP). In 1997, she prevailed over Andrea Hämmerle, a National Council member from Graubünden. In 2000, she stepped down from the presidency and the National Council seat she had won a year earlier due to health reasons and significant internal party pressure.
https://visual.keystone-sda.ch/preview/-/preview/open/2254226/detail?_ch_keystone_liferay_preview_portlet_PreviewPortlet_searchCriteria=newToOld%3AsfALLFIELDS_allfields%3A%282254226%29_sfALLFIELDS&_ch_keystone_liferay_preview_portlet_PreviewPortlet_closeUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fvisual.keystone-sda.ch%2Fweb%2Fguest%2Fresult%2F-%2Fresult%2Fpaging%2F1%3F_ch_keystone_liferay_result_portlet_ResultPortlet_searchCriteria%3DnewToOld%253AsfALLFIELDS_allfields%253A%25282254226%2529_sfALLFIELDS%26ts%3D1777547695702
14.06.2026, 12:00
